I think we were separated at birth.

I could have sworn Mother would have said something ...

"Mother! Why didn't you tell me I have a Indian twin brother! Who's half my age!"

Still, I've seen stranger things in my genealogy.

(laughing my ass off at erika's story, in a twisty little way)

We had a genuinely good writers group tonight. Everyone had something to read, and they brough me cake for my birthday.

That's exactly the way to read it.(I may be one of the only writers around who borrowed from life for a story like that.Although the prosthesis was a nod to my homegirl Flannery O'Connor and "Good Country People".) Sounds like a good group, Deb.

You know what I like about this particular writers group? Everyone at the moment is not only writing, they mostly know what they need input on.

So when Stephanie prefaces reading an early bit in her new book, Wire Monkey, by saying, "OK, I can't help feeling there's too much exposition by the main character, but all the info needs to be there", she really does want the input, and listens, and processes.

It's all good.

Here's a question for the more experienced writers: So I've got the Lucy manuscript fairly polished, and I'd like to start shopping it around to agents in earnest. But I've also been re-reading the 14,000 words or so I've got written in Anna so far, and you know what? It's much, MUCH better. Oh, it's got all kinds of first draft rough edges--a giant backstory infodump here, a scene that reads a little rambly there--but the plot is stronger, my voice is surer, it reads more smoothly, the whole nine yards.

So, given that I already know I'm capable of writing a better book than Lucy, is it in my best interest to shop it around? I really want to, but I think a big part of that is just my eagerness to feel like I'm taking the next steps.

Hmmmm. Good question. My gut take would be to query some agents with synopses of both books; if they ask for a partial, you can can then tell them that "Anna" is, in your opinion, the stronger book.

Alternately, you can simply query on "Anna", and tell a responding agent that this is the second book in the series.

Am I making sense here? It's a bad morning healthwise and I'm a little groggy.

Well, I can't query on Anna until I've finished it, right? Not as an unpublished writer.

True - I forgot, you aren't editing, you're in write mode. Truth to tell, then I'd probably wait, if you feel Anna has the better chance of pinging interest.

That may be smarter, but I'm just chafing to have something out there, you know? Finishing Anna is months away, at minimum. And for all I know, I'm being too hard on Lucy. I mean, my third book will probably be better than Anna, and I've certainly seen worse books than Lucy get published.

Upon further reflection, AmyLiz has Lucy now, and expects to have time to read it within the next month or so. Since she knows her stuff and is a fresh set of eyes, I think I'll wait and see what she thinks, and also what kind of feedback I get from the contests I entered it in back in June. That might give me an idea whether or not the glaring flaws I'm seeing are just from having spent so much time on it that I'm nitpicking.